Repeated Experiences Of Racism Damage Mental Health

It has been found that recurrent events of overt racism are actually a powerful neurotoxin. They cause mental illness and complexes in the minds of those on the receiving end of such treatment.

Racial discrimination has been known to adversely affect mental health not to mention physical well-being. Yet no previous study has gone in-depth into the effects on mental health over the long run. The current study looked into how such a backlog of racial attacks leads to poor mental health and functioning.

Among some of the actions of racists that caused the problems may be included: shouting and physical attacks. Also those suffering from the assaults tended to avoid such places and felt insecure due to their ethnic identity.

Those studies that have delved into this issue of rudeness and obnoxiousness in the past, do not measure the full extent of the damage done. Often the psyches of those on receiving end of such treatment are damaged beyond repair.

The issue of mental problems was the proverbial elephant in the room in case of racial minorities. Repetition of such incidents that degraded and humiliated one only because of the color of one’s skin or one’s features led to a wearying effect. Those lucky few who didn’t experience any such discrimination were free of any such complexes or neuroses.

The basic fear of going out into such areas which were the preserve of racist types of individuals led to the greatest of damage. It was the major neurotoxin that led to unhealthy patterns in ethnic minority individuals.

The level of inequality could be clearly seen from this example. It was all a matter of exposure to the extremely stressful events where one was taunted for things over which one didn’t have any control.

The experiences of people over half a decade were tallied and examined by the scientists. They lucidly showed this pattern of damage done to the psyche via insults and mudslinging in the name of superiority over those who are not able to fight back regarding their rights.

It is a sad fact that while the Cold War has gone with the wind today, racism still survives. The psychological pressure and distress that minorities felt could not be stated in words.

It was a case of a silent group of people that suffered the arrows and slings of fate for no other reason than the fact that they came from a different ethnic stock. Such situations force one to ask the question: Where is the milk of human kindness?